Restoring America’s Honor … Chapter One

This excerpted article is the closest description of my experience at last Saturday’s Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capital, Washington DC. I would only add that Glenn Beck, together with Sarah Palin, Dr. Alveda King and others, wanted us to also take away an affirmation on how important it is that we as Americans value Unity, Faith, Hope and Charity.

And Glenn Beck wanted us to take away another lesson about the reflecting pool – that not only is it situated on the Mall to physically reflect the majesty of the monuments that surround it, but that the pool is there to remind us to ‘reflect’ on the meaning of each those monuments.

“Pundits will debate whether the crowd at Glenn Beck’s Saturday rally in Washington was the largest in recent political history, but it was certainly among the most impressive.

One would not be able to find a more polite crowd at a political convention, certainly not at a professional sporting event, probably not even at an opera. In fact, judging by the behavior of the attendees following the event, you’d have a tough time finding churches in which people display more patience as others make their way to the exits.

This army of well-mannered folks that marched into Washington seemed comprised mainly of people who had once marched in the U.S. Army or other military branch, or at least had a family member who had. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that the event was a fund-raiser for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides scholarships to the children of elite troops killed in the performance of their duty. The day was largely devoted to expressions of gratitude for the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers, for great men of American history like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and for God.

But it didn’t end there. Dave Roever, a Vietnam veteran, offered a closing prayer in which he thanked the Lord for the president and for the Congress. Despite the unpopularity of the latter two, no booing or catcalls could be heard. Relaxed young parents felt comfortable enough to push toddlers in strollers through the crowded areas along the memorial’s reflecting pool.

Not only was the rally akin to a “huge church picnic” (in one Journal reporter’s description), but one had to wonder if the over-achievers in this crowd actually left the area in better shape than they found it.

After the event, walking from the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool through Constitution Gardens, this reporter scanned 360 degrees and could not see a scrap of trash anywhere. Participants and volunteers had collected all their refuse and left it piled neatly in bags around the public garbage cans. Near Constitution Avenue, I did encounter one stray piece of paper — but too old and faded to have been left that day.

Given the huge representation of military families at the event, maybe it’s not surprising the grounds were left ship-shape. A principal theme of the day was that attendees should restore the country by making improvements in their own lives—be the change you wish to see in the world, as Gandhi once put it.

Most of the participants were strictly amateurs in the business of activism. For many, it was their first appearance at a public demonstration. Their strikingly mild-mannered nature might inspire even Mr. Beck to acknowledge that in a crowd estimated at 300,000 [actually, there were at least 500,000 attendees], the craziest person at the event might have been the one with the microphone. While he admits that he’s part entertainer and prone to over-the-top comments, his followers appear to be sincerely responding to his message that Americans need to cling to their best traditions.”

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"other nations"

Noteworthy

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard for our liberties."Abraham Lincoln ~ August 1856

"This is not just an America in decline. This is an America in retreat -- accepting, ratifying and declaring its decline, and inviting rising powers to fill the vacuum."Charles Krauthammer ~ May 2010

"One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain."Thomas Sowell ~ February 2007

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself"Benjamin Franklin ~ "Yardstick of Liberty"

"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight."Albert Schweitzer

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."Gandhi

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good government."
Thomas Jefferson

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."Alexander Graham Bell

"Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts."Aristotle

"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."Milton Friedman

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."Ronald Reagan

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."Alexis de Tocqueville

"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."Thomas Jefferson

"I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts."Ronald Reagan

"Give me liberty or give me death!"Patrick Henry ~ 1775

"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected upon a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."George Washington ~ Inaugural Address 1789

"Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem."Ronald Reagan ~ Inaugural Address 1981

"How can you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."Ronald Reagan

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."Booker T. Washington

"I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible."Milton Friedman

"Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong."Calvin Coolidge

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If ti moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it"Ronald Reagan

"Liberals claim to be open to hearing other peoples' views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."William F. Buckley, Jr.

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."Benjamin Franklin

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."Abraham Lincoln 1856

"There has never been a society or a nation without God. But history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that became indifferent to God, and died."Whitaker Chambers

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever..."Thomas Jefferson 1788

"Within the covers of that single Book are all the answers to all the problems that face us today; if we'd only look there."Ronald Reagan

Hi there! It was a great rally. I was so far off to the left of that photo above, that I couldn’t even place an arrow to the approximate spot. But me and my fam were there too! Gave a peek over at mine if you want to see a few pics. Happy to have found you, conservegan.
Linda